Peyton’s New Place Is Shanahan’s Old House

Denver (AP) – Peyton Manning is taking over John Elway’s old job – and living in Mike Shanahan’s old house.

The Associated Press learned about the arrangement the Broncos new quarterback made with the Redskins coach, who before going to Washington teamed with Elway in the 1990s to bring two Super Bowl titles to Denver.

Though Denver and Washington are in different conferences and only play once every four years, some might still call this a case of sleeping at the enemy’s digs. Regardless, Manning is certainly living in style. Shanahan’s house is a 35,000-square-foot mansion in Cherry Hills Village, one of the Denver area’s fanciest neighborhoods. It’s only expected to be a temporary deal until Manning finds a permanent place to live in the Mile High City.

Broncos owner Pat Bowlen once called Shanahan his coach for life, which might help explain why the coach built the colossus of a house, which has an elevator, a bowling alley and a 3,603-square-foot garage.

Right around the time the house was being finished in early 2009, however, Shanahan got fired. After a year away from the game, he took over for the Redskins, but the coach and his wife never had any intention of selling their Denver home.

Earlier this year, when Manning was hopping around the country visiting teams, one of the coaches he met with was Shanahan. But the meeting came shortly after the Redskins made a trade for the second overall draft pick that would land them Robert Griffin III.

That took Washington out of the market for a quarterback. But it didn’t prevent Shanahan from hooking up Manning with a new home.